August 27, 2012

In Design View, implement a default sort with the ORDER BY clause. It is good practice to add a default sort with an ORDER BY clause to the dataset Query in the Report Data pane. Steps:

navigate to the Report Data pane

click the dataset you are using for the report

click Query

add an ORDER BY clause to the query

Method #2: Table-level static sort

In Design View, define static sort columns. This approach usually results in requests from the end user for multiple reports that use different sort criteria. Steps:

select the report

click the square in the top left corner

click Tablix Properties

click Sorting

click Add

choose a sort column from the dropdown listbox

choose the sort order

Method #3: column-level interactive sort

In Design View, define interactive sort columns. Depending on the number of interactive columns defined and the number of report users, this approach may result in performance issues. If you are using this method to implement sorting, it is good practice to add a default sort with an ORDER BY clause to the dataset Query in the Report Data pane. Interactive sorting overrides the default sort order that was implemented using the ORDER BY clause (method #1 above) or inside the report at the Table level (method #2 above). Steps:

right-click the column you want to sort

click Text Box Properties

click Interactive Sort

click Enable if it is disabled

choose a sort column from the dropdown listbox

In Preview, you will now see an up-down arrow in the column heading that the report user can click to toggle between ascending or descending sort order